V-CUBE, Inc. has been Japan’s leader in web conference service for seven straight years. It began as a student venture business formed by Naoaki Mashita, the company president, when he was a student at Keio University. They are now focusing on expanding business into developing Asian countries, which are seeing rapid economic development. Mashita spent the better part of one year in Singapore, after which he now spearheads all of Asia, including Japan. We spoke with him about business in Asia. (Details of the interview current as of September 2013.)

LEADING THE JAPANESE CLOUD MARKET FOR SEVEN YEARS STRAIGHT

―Please tell us fi rst about what your company does.

We provide cloud-based visual communication to corporate enterprises and government agencies. Especially, our V-CUBE Meeting, a web conference service, has been implemented at over 4,000 companies, which has made us the Japanese leader in the cloud market for seven years running. We offer other services besides web conference service as well, such as our V-CUBE Seminar, which is a seminar platform that can be broadcast simultaneously to 10,000 locations, and V-CUBE Sales & Support, which allows close, face to face communication, one on one, in any situation.

―You originally launched this company when you were a student at Keio University, right?

I got my start in 1998 when I began V-cube Internet, Inc. I was a university student at the time, focusing on commissioned production and development of online contents. Afterwards I developed our company’s current service and changed our name to V-CUBE, Inc. in 2006, which is the name it still has today.

―So, V-CUBE is proactively expanding into Asia?

We started with expanding into the States in 2003 in order to develop the North American market. Right now we are focusing business development in Southeast Asia.

―Are many of your overseas customers Japanese companies?

Actually, no. The majority of them are local companies. In Thailand, for example, there are local Thai companies, hospitals, universities, and other local businesses using our services.